TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (7) TMI 1275
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....anding Counsel for Income Tax are before this Court. 2. All the aforesaid learned counsel make a common submission in unison that these four cases are covered by an earlier common order made by this Court, being order dated 27.06.2019, in W.P.Nos.2552 of 2019 etc., To be noted, 33 writ petitions were disposed of by the aforesaid common order, for the sake of convenience and ease of reference, entire order dated 27.06.2019, made in the aforesaid batch of 33 writ petitions, is extracted, reproduced infra and the same reads as follows: 'This common order will dispose of all these 33 writ petitions. There is no disputation or disagreement before this Court and between the parties that all these 33 writ petitions are covered by an earlier order dated 18.06.2019 made by this Court in W.P.Nos.16868, 16877, 16882 and 16893 of 2019, which in turn was made by following an earlier common order dated 11.06.2019 made by this Court in W.P.Nos.15651/2019 etc., (five writ petitions). 2. To be noted, all these writ petitions turn on Section 80P of 'Income Tax Act, 1961' ('IT Act' for brevity). 3. For the sake of convenience, clarity and ease of reference, most relevant pa....
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....tances of the case the Tribunal was right in holding that the assessee is to be treated as primary agricultural society and is carrying on the business of banking or providing credit facilities to its members and is entitled for deduction under Section 80P (2) (a) (i) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 with respect to the interest received from Class B members who were involved in non-agricultural activity. 2. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case the Tribunal was right in holding that the Class B members of the assessee society can be treated as a member of the society for the purpose of Section 80P (2) (a) (i) when Class B members do not have the right to participate in the voting and meetings of the board of the society. 3. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case the Tribunal was right in not considering the fact that the assessee was lending monies for non-agricultural purpose and the provisions of Section 80P (4) and 2(24) (viia). The contention of the learned counsel for the appellant/ Revenue department, is that Class B members of the respondent societies cannot be treated as members of the assessee societies, as Class B members were not ....
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....hat the primary object of the society is to provide financial accommodation to its members to meet all the agricultural requirements and to provide credit facilities to the members, as per the bye-laws and as laid down in Section 5 (cciv) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Further, from the CPT Circular dated 12.03.2008, it is evident that a credit co-operative society is not a co-operative bank, as defined in Part V of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The object of a 'Co- operative bank' is to accept deposits from the public, for lending or investment of money. On perusal of the findings of the Appellate Authority as well as the Appellate Tribunal, it is categorically made clear that the assessee society will not come under the object of the principal business of a co-operative bank, which is a banking business. The benefit of Section 80P is excluded for deductions by co-operative banks, whereas the primary agricultural credit societies are entitled for the said deduction. 14. .... 15. In the recent decision of the Kerala High Court, in the case of Chirakkal Service Co-operative Bank Ltd., Kannur vs. the Commissioner of Income Tax, reported in (2016) 68 taxmann.com.....
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....d this Court would have been inclined to set aside the impugned notices, this Court takes a slightly different view owing to the second submission made by learned counsel, which is a crucial aspect of the trajectory of the hearing today. 17. The second submission made by learned Revenue counsel is that with regard to notices under Section 148 of IT Act particularly with regard to notices predicated on escaped assessment under 147 of IT Act, different periods of limitation have been prescribed for different circumstances. It may not be necessary to advert to those aspects in a great detail. Suffice to say that three different periods of limitation have been prescribed for notices akin to the instant notices i.e., notices under Section 148 of IT Act and those three periods of limitations are contained in first proviso to Section 147, Section 149(1)(b) and Section 149(1)(c) of IT Act. 18 Learned Revenue counsel adverting to the aforesaid provisions submitted that it may be too late in the day for the Revenue to issue notices under Section 148 afresh, if they are set aside now and ultimately if the Revenue succeeds in the Special Leave Petitions, which are said to have been filed. ....